Gerard Batten Ukip’s leader quits after his catastrophic leadership led them to abject disaster in the #EU elections.

Nigel Farage having left the party there were a series of utterly useless leaders who were clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel in a party that had no future and few if any members of any merit whatsoever.

Eventually they reached the very bottom of the barrel and appointed Gerard Batten as leader.

Batten took over after a lack lustre career as lick spittle to Nigel Farage – he had absolutely no discernible ability as a leader and displayed that during his tenure of office.

In Nigel Farage’s last EU election as leader of Ukip the party managed to elect 24 MPs, making them the largest British Party, but due to lack of leadership he soon began to lose them, some fell by the wayside due to corruption, many fell out with Farage whom no one of any sense was likely to trust once they had experienced him at close quarters, apart from a few scoundrels who for lack of ability rode his coat tails as sycophants.

Nattrass & Batten were examples, who had followed in his wake and become MEPs but when exposed to scrutiny without his protection soon showed their utter ineptitude – though Farage hiself had lost about half of his MEPs by the time Batten had eviscerated the party there were but Batten and 2 MEPs left to contest the election on 23-May-2019!

Batten had put the final kiss of death on Ukip, the outcome was inevitable – the party had collapsed from 24 MEPs to zero.

Nigel Farage’s bullying and duplicitous behaviour as leader was the start of the collapse which in her 18 days as leader Diane James did nothing to stem.

Clearly Farage stepping in again added to the confussion and his protégé Nattrass was indisputably a low life who became the laughing stock of the press and members alike with his fantasy CV and embellishment of lies.

The interim leader Henry Bolton who as disasters go was only outperformed by Batten.

Batten had a long history of utter ineptitude with his hate soaked superstition & extreme overt attacks on Muslims,

most probably driven by his Pilipino wife, who doubtless would have grown up as a Catholic under the aegis of Cardinal Sin. That latterly Batten had openly allied himself to extremist self-proclaimed Christians helped him not a Jot. His appointment of the convicted criminal & extremist racist Tommy Robinson as his personal adviser

was just another nail in Ukip’s political coffin and his own career compounded by having thus attracted some real scum as supporters, from the now largely defunct National Front & BNP and the relatively newly emerged EDL.

Clearly with Batten at the helm Ukip was doomed but to be fair there was absolutely no one of any probity or stature left in the party and definitely no one anyone of principles would wish to be represented by – even by the low calibre of those attracted to political office nowadays, Ukip’s offering were a very sorry shower!

Ukip has only ever seemed to attract those who had failed elsewhere be that Farage engaging in politics having failed in The City dallied with the National Front

realised he stood no chance in Margaret Thatcher’s Tory Party he joined Ukip in its early days shortly after its foundation by Alan Skedd. He fell out with many in Ukip and seemingly explored the possibility of leadership of the BNP

prior to realising Ukip was his best vehicle for enrichment!

Ukip under Farage’s leadership attracted similar rejects, but never anyone of competence or stature, who remained for much more than a month or two – the party was not a nice place to be for anyone of finesse or ability then or now. A party which has largely attracted the gutter sweepings of politics as can be seen from those who have held office in the past.

I would contend to make ANY effort to resurrect the party now would be an act of tasteless pure folly, not just because trying to breathe life into a corpse is more suited to Mary Shelley, but that it carries too much malodorous baggage – the inability of Farage to build a sound structure over his 20 years of defacto leadership has been displayed most clearly by the absolute & abject failure under subsequent leadership, not even a structure remains.

It should be noted that even those who positioned themseloves with EU ‘Golden Parachutes’ and pensions abandoned the party, there is no sign of any ex Ukip MEPs making any meaningfull contributions to the party that elevated them – were ANY of them there for the cause or were they all only there for their own gain as seems likely.

Astonishingly in its entire existence Ukip has NEVER has a strategy that considered any sort of vision, as to how to protect Britain and the interests of the British peoples nor any vision or structure for our country as to how to take advantage of liberation from the malign control of the EU.

Farage in all his years in control, philandering, carousing & fiddling has never amounted to being much beyond the simpering child at the back of the class with the winning smile who makes rude noises and gestures behind the backs of the grown-ups to gain popularity amongst a claque of fools.

As for his recent foray with the Brexit Party he has clearly learned, with his two speeches, to deliver them ever better but even now he would seem to have no clear strategy nor credible plan in the best interests of those he has beguiled to vote for his masters, handlers who now keep him on a tighter reign.

Of all who have believed in self-determination and independence for these United Kingdoms it could self-evidently be said that not one has done more to harm the possibilities and opportunities the British people could have through BreXit and few did more to try to stall the process than Nigel Farage – right down to positioning an inept fool to lead Ukip to its demise as Gerard Batten has done, in his hubristic ignorance & utter incompetence.

Farage is and always has been a pawn to other influences, all be it a financially well rewarded pawn, be that of his earlier masters who manipulated him or be they those who fund him directly and indirectly to this day – to be fair as a political prostitute he has navigated the paying punters with some cunning – even duping the gullible to believe he had a major role in gaining BreXit, where the informed are well aware he tried to block it!

Be assured Batten on the other hand got one thing right – he said ‘if Ukip does badly in the EU elections his position will be untenable’ he was right and good riddance to the odious little creep.

it may interest less frequent readers of our blog regarding Nigel Farage and his various cults be they Ukip, EUkip, EFD Group, EFDD Group his antics with Aaron Banks, his toadying with Donal Trump, his several financial scams his various mistresses and now his latest incarnation with The BreXit Party it has frequently been this blog that has published the facts first – whether that was his relationship with Annabelle Fuller some 15 years ago, his wife’s threatening his mistress at a Party conference or his tax dodging deposit of £1/4 Million in The Isle of Mann in the name of Farage Educational Trust years before the media caught up with the scam.

It was also this blog, together with Daniel Foggo that exposed the embezzelment of money by Tom Wise in his association with Lindsey Jenkins. We also orchestrated the foreward to one of Lindsey Jenkins’ books and part funding of its publication by Nigel Farage and when he tried to renege on his payment we ensured he settled the debt.

We colluded in the exposure of Farage’s paying his wife £30K a year with tax payers’ money seemingly as hush money as a result of his long term affair with Annabelle Fuller. We also colluded in denouncing Farage employing his staff as sexual partners at the taxpayers’ expense on the floor of the EU parliament.

We were publishing details of ‘Dark Money’ long before it was fashionable and at least 10 years we were publishing facts regarding Farage’s ongoing affair with Laure Ferrarri when she was about 25 and just one of his, apparently fully funded, stable of mistresses.

Long before Annabelle Fuller changed her name to Trixie Sanderson and sold her kiss and tell story to The Sun we had published the facts, without the lurid embellishments! It was as a result of our constant publication of facts that we were frequently threatened by Faragistas and endlessly lied about by one of the most consumate liars and serial degenerates Nigel Farage.

For years Farage lied about his debauchery and much else!

All of that said, lets face it the British public; who were unaware of the enormity of the incompetence, profligacy, self serving dishonesty of the clear majority of politicians; have recently learned in watching the machinations and corrupt antics of politicians relative to BreXit in recent months.

I guess the real start of the dishonestly regarding the EU, as far as Britain was concerned, was with Eden, MacMillan and on becoming more obvious with Heath & Rippon. Thatcher tried to stem the corruption but even she lacked the courage to advocate leaving and it took the likes of Norris McWhirter and a small group of stalwarts from the The Anti_Common Market League founded in 1961 to start to highlight the issues for the public.

Ukip was a late arriver when Alan Skedd founded the party in 1993 – Farage joined quite early on, as of course did Mark Deavin of the BNP!

Farage fell out with Skedd and at one stage quit the party during which time he is believed to have actively sought the leadership of the BNP as discussed with LeComber & Deavin:

and so the story goes on – all covered in detail elsewhere in this blog.

It is however worthy of note that Nigel Farage has done much to undermine and seemingly seek to sabotage the #BreXit movement – refusing to actively oppose the introduction of the New EU Constitution in Britain which having been voted down by the French, the Dutch, The danish and the Irish was rapidly reprinted with minor alterations in a different point size to seem different when restyled The Lisbon Treaty!.

Even when it came to the original campaign to get BreXit Farage did very little and in fact did a great deal to avoid leaving the EU as anyone who has followed the facts relative to his behaviour regarding Nikki Sinclaire can attest.

Although never creditted with the achievement Sit was Nikki Sinclaire who is directly responsible for forcing the Government to a debate and vote in Parliament and the inclusion of the promise of an In/Out vote in a Referendum and the solemn PROMISE that whatever the Peoples’ Vote decided would be honoured by the Government.

It was Paddy Ashdown who said on the night of the count:

I will respect no one who does not respect the sovereign vote of the British people once it has spoken whether it is a majority of one percent or 20 percent.When the British people have spoken you do what they command. Either you believe in democracy or you don’t.

(Paddy Ashdown whilst awaiting the result of the Referendum count 23-Jun-2016)

His memory is soon forgotten by clearly lesser men in the Lib Dems who are clearly far from Liberal & no lovers of democracy.

I hope, inspite of the facts pertaining to Nigel Farage you will, like me, on the 23rd. May hold your nose and inspite of Farage & his cult VOTE FOR The BreXit Party, particularly if you value democracy after the obscene behaviour of our Parliament who have betrayed and lied to the electorate.

‘I dream about you Nigel!’ Liz Hurley confessed her affections for Farage, claim his camp as the Brexit Party maintains its 18 point lead over the Tories ahead of May 23 EU elections

Supermodel, 53, reportedly told Mr Farage her secret at a recent London party

Source said: ‘Nigel said that Liz Hurley once told him at a party: ‘I dream about you Nigel!’ Women are just sort of drawn to him – but then so are men’

Mr Farage has given up pints for a rare glass of wine and has a fitness regime

He said: ‘It’s made a massive difference. I’m not going to the pub every day. I had enough of not feeling good’

New EU election poll puts Brexit Party on 30%, Labour on 24% and Tories on 12%

Liz Hurley allegedly confessed her admiration for Nigel Farage and told him that she ‘dreams about him’ as it was revealed the Brexit Party today opened up an 18-point lead over the Tories.

The claim about the supermodel, 53, was made by ‘friends’ of Mr Farage, 59, as he revealed a new clean-living regime with pints swapped for red wine while he campaigns around Britain.

His lifestyle change came in the wake of this 2010 plane crash and heavy drinking in previous elections – combined with a more professional American-style approach to politics – and he believes it has helped his anti-EU movement surge in the polls.

Today a new survey for Good Morning Britain found that 30 per cent of people intend to vote for the Brexit Party in the May 23 European elections, with the Tories far behind on 12 per cent and Labour on 24 per cent.

And while Mr Farage campaigns around the nation – landing in Wales today – a source told the Telegraph that ‘women are queuing up to meet him’.

The source added: ‘Nigel said that Liz Hurley once told him at a party: ‘I dream about you Nigel!’ Women are just sort of drawn to him – but then so are men’.

The supermodel is a known Brexiteer having already backed the campaign to leave the EU by stripping off on the eve of polling day in 2016 declaring: ‘No whinging from the losers’.

A new GMB poll found that 30 per cent of people intend to vote for the Brexit Party on May 23 – way ahead of the Tories and leading Labour too

Mr Farage, whose new party is set to give the Tories and Labour a bruising on May 23, has been in a relationship with 39-year-old French former waitress Laure Ferrari, ‘for around a decade’, according to the Telegraph.

Liz Hurley backed the campaign to leave the EU by stripping off on the eve of polling day in 2016 (pictured)

In 2017 his second wife Kirsten revealed they were living ‘separate lives’ and he had moved out of their Kent home.

‘Nigel is not a misogynist – he loves women, but he is an old-fashioned sexist’, a Brexit Party insider claimed.

‘There are women queuing up to meet him. Mainly it tends to be women of a certain age these days’.

Mr Farage is in Wales today for another Brexit Party rally, but will not be going to the pub afterwards having decided to get ‘off the beer’ for the sake of his health – but does have a glass of Rioja from time to time.

He’s also doing fitness work after long days of campaigning for UKIP in general and European elections with his second wife Kirsten saying that she feared his drinking, smoking and long working hours could make him seriously ill.

He told the Telegraph today: ‘I did myself a lot of damage but it helps if I do exercise little and often. It’s made a massive difference. I’m not going to the pub every day. I had enough of not feeling good. I was just not physically as fit as I need to be’.

Ministers now fear a bloodbath at the hands of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party next week when the country goes to the polls for European parliament elections that would not have taken place if the UK had left the EU on time.

A YouGov poll this week found that the Tories were on course to slump to fifth place behind the Greens in next week’s elections.

The survey for the Times put the Brexit Party on 34 points, well ahead of Labour on 16, the Liberal Democrats on 15 and the Greens on 11. The poll put Tory support on just 10 per cent.

After his second marriage ended two years ago, Mr Farage said he was ‘separated and skint’.

He has used his own cash built up from lucrative speaking tours in America in what he called the ‘start-up phase’ of the Brexit Party before securing huge donations from disillusioned Brexiteers.

Mr Farage, whose new party is set to give the Tories and Labour a bruising on May 23, has been in a relationship with 39-year-old French former waitress Laure Ferrari (pictured), ‘for around a decade’, according to the Telegraph

Kirsten Farage, the second wife of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, leaves the family home at Downe, Kent, after they officially split in 2017

Financier Jeremy Hosking, 60, a former Tory donor who owns a major share of Crystal Palace Football Club, said he has given £200,000 over the past two to three weeks.

Mr Farage has said the party had already raised ‘well over’ £2million to fight the European contests, with 90 per cent of it from some 88,000 people paying a £25 fee to become registered supporters.

Away from work he has found love with Laure Ferrari, who once branded English women ‘drunken tarts’ in an email to a woman previously named as Mr Farage’s mistress.

Miss Ferrari began working for Mr Farage and fellow Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom after meeting them in the Strasbourg restaurant where she waited tables in 2007.

Describing the meeting she said: ‘I met these two MEPs and we started talking about politics. The two Brits have no hierarchy and neither of them comes from a political background.’

In June 2013, Miss Ferrari posted on Twitter a link to a newspaper feature asking ‘Why do more women want to bed Nigel Farage over David Cameron?’

Miss Ferrari spoke alongside UKIP politicians and other Brexit campaigners at public events in Dorset and Norfolk ahead of the 2016 EU referendum and has moved in with Mr Farage.

In 2017 he described himself as ‘separated and skint’ as he walked away from his marriage to second wife Kirsten. They have two children.

Mrs Farage admitted at the time they have been living separate lives ‘for years’ and ‘that suits everyone’. Mr Farage remained silent but a month earlier, when asked about the state of his marriage, he replied: ‘We get by and bumble along, like most people.’

In 2014 he was accused of having had an affair with Annabelle Fuller, then 32, one of his spin doctors.

According to the Mirror, Mrs Farage confronted her at a UKIP election party and allegedly told her: ‘I will have security drag you out by your hair if you don’t leave’.

Both Farage and Fuller have vehemently denied any affair.

Farage married German-born Kirsten Mehr in 1999 after his divorce from first wife, Gráinne Hayes, an Irish nurse and the mother of his eldest two children.

They met after he had serious car accident at the age of 21 because Ms Hayes was the nurse who treated him in hospital for months where he was in traction and unable to have a bath.

He said of Brexit Party boss Farage, 55: “He didn’t even bother to see if we were OK.”

The pint-loving politician has now been banned from Mr Tranter’s pub amid the claims he walked away from the smash.

Furious Patrick Tranter, who needed hospital treatment, told The Sun: “He lives two miles away and loves a pint, but he won’t get one from me. Man of the people, my arse. As far as I’m concerned he’s barred.”

Last night Mr Farage insisted he checked nobody was hurt and claimed Patrick was abusive. He said he had visited the George and Dragon in Westerham, Kent, in the past but added: “If I’m banned, then it’s not too terrible is it?”

Patrick, 38, had dropped off his wife at the station and was driving home when his vintage Jag collided head-on with Mr Farage’s chauffeur-driven Range Rover on Thursday morning.

Son George, 13 months, was in his seat in the back. He was also rushed to hospital.

SCREAMING TODDLER

Patrick said: “We crashed with an enormous bang. Farage could not possibly have failed to hear George screaming. I ran out to see if my little boy was OK.

“Farage stepped out of the Range Rover, collected his bag from the boot and walked off.

“He didn’t have the common decency to see if we were OK, and never even looked back.

“God knows where (he went) as it was a country lane. He just vanished. I turned around and asked one of his people, ‘Is that Farage?’ and she said yes.

“It would be pure speculation to guess how fast his car was going but it is his response which has really p***ed me off.

“His driver Dean Chapman confirmed it was him but I was dumbfounded by his behaviour. Who does he think he is?”

Patrick says his 1986 Jaguar Series 3 Sovereign was written off in the smash in Titsey at 9.30am.

Ex-Ukip leader Mr Farage, the driver and another passenger escaped injury because their motor had airbags.

He continued with campaigning for his Brexit Party ahead of the European elections.

Pint-loving politician Nigel Farage has been banned from Mr Tranter’s pub — just two miles from his home — amid claims he walked away from the smash

Damage to the front of the Range Rover that Nigel Farage was being driven in

Where the smash happened in Westerham, Kent

Later he clashed with Change UK’s Anna Soubry on BBC TV’s Question Time in Northampton.

Patrick did not vote in the 2016 EU referendum and said he would not dream of backing Mr Farage’s new party.

He added: “If he’d asked how I was he would have recognised me.

“I worked with his daughter Victoria at a wedding a year ago.

“The cars crashed with so much force that my car was pushed back into the bushes on the other side of the road.

“His driver was really courteous and waited by our car. He called the police and ambulance too.”

‘THE OTHER DRIVER WAS ABUSIVE’

Patrick and George — described as distressed by the ambulance service — were taken to Princess Royal University Hospital, Orpington. Patrick had neck and shoulder injuries and possible whiplash.

Mr Farage said last night: “The driver of the other car was abusive. He was swearing very loudly and after accidents people do all sorts of things. It was a pretty full-on smash and I understand why people can be a bit shocked.

“Once I had ascertained that everyone was OK I made discreet withdrawal from the situation.

“I didn’t think that me, with a rather a well-known face, going into that situation would have helped anything or anybody.

“Had anybody been hurt I would have stayed and waited for the ambulance.

“I just thought there was nothing to be added by me talking to him.

“I didn’t hear his child screaming so I walked up the road.”

Mr Farage said he had drunk at Patrick’s pub but wouldn’t be back.

Police are not investigating any offences relating to the accident.

A TORY Party backer, Crystal Palace and Flybe investor Jeremy Hoskins, has switched his allegiance and donated £200,000 to the Brexit Party.

Police at the scene of the smash near Westerham in Kent – but cops say they are not investigating any offences

Mr Farage said: ‘Once I had ascertained that everyone was OK I made discreet withdrawal from the situation’

it seems Farage’s inability to cope with details, racism and factual inexactitude follows him wherever he goes. As the article below shows!

In reality The BreXit Party is yet again a Farage Cult, with many of the same followers however in view of the lies and betrayal that have been emmanating from Parliament many people, like myself, will find that subsequent to Parliament’s betrayal of the electorate, its own promises and the manifestly self serving behaviour of the proven majority in the House of Commons – we are left with no choice, at the moment, but to hold our noses and inspite of Nigel Farage and some of his cult followers we shall vote for the BreXit Party, on matters pertaining to the EU.

Brexit Party figures who left over offensive posts are still directors

Former leader and former treasurer of Nigel Farage’s party were supposed to have cut ties

Two senior members of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party who left their roles after the Guardian uncovered offensive social media messages they had sent are still directors of the organisation weeks after they had supposedly cut all ties, it has emerged.

Blaiklock, who also retweeted far-right messages, including one from a former British National party activist referring to “white genocide”, also resigned as company secretary of the party soon after the posts emerged, six weeks ago. But despite that change being made to the Companies House register, she remains listed as a director.

McGough is also still a director. He was removed as treasurer a month ago after posting what the party called “unacceptable statements”. A party statement at the time said he would no longer have any role in the organisation.

The only other two directors are Farage and the new treasurer, Phillip Basey, a former Ukip activist.

In some messages, McGough referred to Ed and David Miliband and Peter Mandelson as having “shallow UK roots” or being “devoid of UK roots” – seen as a common antisemitic trope about Jewish people.

One post from 2017 called David Miliband the “son of an east European communist now milking it from a charity in New York and devoid of UK roots”.

Another message said: “The Miliband dudes and Mandelson have the shortest of roots. Transient folk they have no loyalty to the UK.” One reply by another user tells McGough he is on “slightly dangerous ground”. McGough replies: “True, but there is a valid point to be made even if it seems offensive. It is not dissimilar to Lord Tebbit’s cricket test.”

A post about Mandelson reads: “I resent being called racist by an old queen with shallow UK roots.”

Blaiklock sent offensive tweets that she later deleted, including one saying: “Islam = submission – mostly to raping men it seems.”

She also retweeted seven messages from the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Farage left Ukip after its current leader, Gerard Batten, made Robinson an adviser.

Other tweets sent by Blaiklock included one that referred to Islam as “a non-democracy ideology that is incompatible with liberal democracy”. Another said of Islam that it was “perfectly rational to be phobic about people who want to kill you”.

Both Blaiklock and McGough were longtime former Ukip members, and moved to the Brexit party with Farage. Their departures marked a tricky launch for the party, which has since rebounded spectacularly, and is leading in the polls for the European elections.

EU recovers £200,000 from Ukip MEPs accused of misusing funds

Time running out to recoup money from others alleged to have broken rules

Paul Nuttall, the former Ukip leader, is entitled to a €68,428 transition allowance. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

The European parliament has recovered more than £200,000 from Ukip MEPs accused of misusing public funds through payments to party workers. But with three weeks to go until European elections, time is running out to recoup money from others alleged to have broken EU rules.

The parliament has suspended the pay of two staff attached to Ukip’s former leader Paul Nuttall and his fellow North West England MEP Louise Bours, the Guardian has learned. Neither MEP is standing for re-election on 23 May, which could make it harder for officials to recover money.

Since the Guardian revealed the parliament’s investigation into Ukip misspending in 2017, £202,667 has been recovered from two current MEPs and one former one.

Nigel Farage was docked half his MEP’s salary for 10 months in 2018, and he is judged to have repaid a £39,653 debt to the EU. European parliament financial controllers said Farage broke the rules by paying a Ukip party worker with EU funds meant to pay for staffing of his MEP office. Farage, who left Ukip in December and now leads the Brexit party, has always denied the charge.

Raymond Finch was docked £61,650 of his MEP’s salary over the employment of two assistants, including Farage’s estranged wife, Kirsten.

While Nuttall and Bours could lose their transitional allowances, it is not clear whether this would be enough to cover the alleged losses from the EU budget.

Elected in 2014, Bours would be entitled to a €40,949 (£35,025) after-tax transition payment, while Nuttall’s stint as an MEP since 2009 could entitle him to €68,428. The payments are based on the length of time served as an MEP, but are not meant to be claimed by ex-politicians with another job or pension.

Earlier calculations put repayment demands on then Ukip MEPs at around £500,000, but cases against two were later closed without any action.

All MEPs have strenuously rejected claims that the rules were broken. Their bloc in the European parliament, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, has previously described the investigation as “a vindicative campaign” against Eurosceptic MEPs.

Responding to the latest findings, an EFDD spokesman said the parliament had behaved “disgracefully” towards the former employees of Bours and Nuttall. “Both of them have been doing the jobs they have been contracted to do and one of the guys lost his house,” the spokesman said.

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IN MEMORIAM: Mark Fitzgeorge-Parker aka Mark Daniel Born 1942 Died 03-May-2014 Mark sadly died in Cheltenham of pneumonia aged 72

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Mark Fitzgeorge-Parker who used the nom de plume Mark Daniel was born 1942

he sadly died early in the morning on Saturday 03-May-2014, in Cheltenham of pneumonia, aged 72.

I was saddened to hear of the untimely death of Mark who I first met in 2005 when he phoned me up and asked if I would permit him to buy me lunch in Chepstow as he was researching a book on UKIP for Roger Knapman:

who was at that time the leader of UKIP.

Subsequently we spoke in detail, often several times a week and asked to be on my mailing list, whilst he researched his book.

Mark was an interesting and well informed character and I soon learned from him of his Ampleforth & Cambridge education and the background and details of his earlier life and career. He made no effort to disguise any part of his colourful life, be that prison for passing dud cheques or being sued by his Father!

In 2005, shortly before the election, he published his book ‘Cranks & Gadflies, The Story of UKIP’, which is still thwe best and most accurate history and exposee of UKIP to that date. I well recall at the time Roger proclaimed his support for the book however I well remember Nigel Farage’s reticence to promote the book as he felt it was a little too accurate and comprehensive, perhaps as comment6ators said ‘warts and all’. Sadly no better nor more accurate book has been written about UKIP.

It is notable that despite Nigel’s reticence the book soon sold out and was very readable such that Mark was subsequently commissioned by Nigel Farage to write the two books about him, Mark was sufficiently competent a writer to write to a brief and be able to put a slant on a book to flatter and promote his client!

The quote which was added was a comment made by Nigel farage’s long term associate the anti Islamic extremist and liar who inclines to incite racial hatred, Gerard Batten a UKIP MEP.

Mark’s second book promoting Farage was ‘Flying Free’ published in 2011.

In keeping with Mark’s willingness to publish warts and all when unrestrained the following review of his book on UKIP tells much of his history and personality:

‘A party of idiots, paranoiacs, whores and vagabonds’

Alexander Waugh reviews Cranks and Gadflies: the Story of UKIP by Mark Daniel.

19 Jun 2005

Isn’t it odd how people who group together under the banner of a shared opinion always seem to disagree more violently among themselves than with their declared enemies? It has always been the case. Take, for example, the early Christians. According to the ancient record of Celsus, written in about 178 AD: “Christians utterly detest each other, they slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse… Each sect fills the head of its own with deceitful nonsense and makes perfect little pigs of those it wins over to its side.”And so it is with UKIP – the United Kingdom Independence Party – whose founding purpose (to extricate Britain from the European Union) has been subsumed, in the 12 short years since its formation, by such a torrent of plotting, denouncing, suing, counter-suing, shrieking, back-stabbing and cussing that one wonders how many of its members have retained any memory of why they signed up with the party in the first place.At a recent National Executive Council meeting one member became so livid with rage that he suffered a heart attack and died. And what about the time when such an almighty row broke out over who should be UKIP’s leader that the party was rent in twain and, for a while, two defiant UKIPs ran simultaneously out of two separate offices ?In his absorbing history of the party, Mark Daniel appears to relish each scandal as it arises, gleefully relating how UKIP’s founder drained the party’s coffers to defend himself against accusations of slander and how a South East MEP stood for election in 2004 without mentioning that he was facing charges of housing benefit fraud (which remain subjudice and he denies fiercely).Daniel also reveals how the party was infiltrated by the BNP activist, Mark Deavin; how UKIP’s Scottish organiser wrote to the newspapers declaring that the Nazi holocaust was grossly exaggerated; and he describes, with seeming glee, a party membership that is comprised of “idiots, paranoiacs and conspiracy theorists… freelance artists… traders, whores and vagabonds”.From the outset, Daniel declares: “I have never been a party member.” It might easily be assumed from this that he is a disaffected party apparatchik whose sole purpose is to discredit UKIP in such a way that nobody ever votes for it again. But a couple of seconds of Google espionage reveals that Mark Daniel is in fact a nom de plume for Mark Fitzgeorge-Parker – who stood as a UKIP candidate in Exeter at this year’s General Election, ending in sixth place with 3.37 per cent of the vote.A further scrimmage into the Fitzgeorge-Parker mystery reveals that the author enjoys something of a maverick past himself. Having been imprisoned as a young man for issuing duff cheques and pilfering precious books from Cambridge University libraries he used the Daniel pseudonym for a fictionalised account of his jail experiences. After his release, he found himself once again up in court on charges of libel and, in a parallel action, was sued by his own father for breach of copyright.Perhaps none of this would be relevant had Daniel not chosen to call his book Cranks and Gadflies, a phrase drawn directly from Michael Howard’s intended slur on the UKIP membership, or if Nigel Farage, UKIP’s second-in-command, had not stood before the European Parliament denouncing individual members of José Barrosa’s Commission as ex-crooks, ex-communists and liars.Daniel’s purpose in this warts-and-all exposé is not then, as far as I can tell, to discredit UKIP but, on the contrary, to make it seem like a quaintly attractive collective of “real people”. “Don’t mind me, I’m mad,” folks used to say to endear themselves to their school friends. That ploy didn’t work then and is unlikely to work for UKIP now. And if Daniel’s high-risk public relations experiment backfires it will cost the cranks and gadflies dearly.

“He was just so intelligent and had a vast knowledge. He was a person that people would turn to for help and he would do anything for anyone.

“He had a great interaction with people and he was a real showman. But he was a complicated man and had a private side and could be reclusive at times.

“He was very kind and generous, but he could also be a difficult man, cantankerous and rude at times, but people were never offended.

“He was very good at reading people and was a truly gifted man.

“As one neighbour put it, he was often outrageous, but generally right”.

“He was passionate about so many things in Cheltenham – with one of them being that the town’s Jazz Festival was too quiet and should be louder.

“He had a massive impact on people’s lives and will be missed.”

I must say I found Mark to have all of these attributes and characteristics and thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with him and was flattered by the amount he used my then frequent eMails and my blogging as a source for his research, as of course did both media and UKIP leadership alike.

Mark in his younger days had been a keen fisherman and surfer and had inheristed his fathert’s love or art and also his father’s interest in horses, having been a competitive steeplechaser.

Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker was well known as a character and author particularly in the horse racing world.

Mark having lived in Italy, Ireland and France was fluent in both French and Italian and during my dealings with him was taking trips on costal cruisers in Norway and other Scandinavian ports as part of his work whilst living in Exeter as a regular columnist for The Western Morning News. Not only had he written 1,000s of columns for a variety of media but had published some 41 books.

In 2011 Mark moved to Cheltenham to live closer to his 20 year old son Kit.

Having moved to Montpellier in Cheltenham he threw himself, with his notable enthusiasm and commitment to people into life in Cheltenham and last year stood in the Gloucester County Council election for Lansdown and Park and this year was standing for a seat on Cheltenham Borough Council in Charlton Park ward. He had also stood for UKIP in the past when in Exeter.

An impressive intellect and sound knowlege in many fields will make the death of Mark a loss to many – the world is less colourful for his departure.

what is the ‘Exit & Survival Strategy’ this time Farage or is it same old same old froth & folly like the last part you destroyed for lack of vision?

As we all struggle to find solutions to Brexit, it is rather ironic – the extent of being bizarre – that so many should be turning to a man who bears much of the responsibility for the current mess.

The best chance of there ever being a smooth Brexit – however forlorn the hope might have been – rested not on the referendum campaign (or its immediate aftermath) but in the years leading up to it. Long before it got to a vote, the Eurosceptic movement needed to have agreed what we were, at the turn of the century, calling an “exit and survival plan”.

As the leader of the then only dedicated anti-EU party, Nigel Farage was perhaps the only man who could have fostered the development of a plan and united the disparate factions behind it. Instead, he blocked any progress in that direction and settled on a strategy based on building a base of MPs in Westminster, with himself at the head.

His idea was that the pressure exerted by Ukip MPs would create such stresses in the Parliamentary Conservative Party that it would split. The larger number, he believed, would join Ukip, building a majority that could form a government to take us out of the EU.

In this fantasy, there was no need for an exit plan. His new government would have the civil service, which would do as instructed and work up the detail. All Farage’s party had to do was win enough elections and the problem was solved.

Well, we all know how that worked out. Despite multiple attempts, Farage never got near winning a seat in the Commons, much less populating the green seats with his own. He didn’t even manage to keep control of his own party, allowing it to be seized from him, ending up in the hands of the dire Gerard Batten. Its record 24 MEPs dwindling to a mere four.

Now the resurgent demagogue has created a new party, over which he has almost total control, untroubled by such inconvenient things as a democracy. And yet, Lewis Goodhall, the political correspondent for Sky News, describes him as a man who “cannot be faulted for his appreciation of strategy”.

Despite that, the “electric” Mr Farage is a one-trick pony, capable of delivering only a single core speech. With its variations, it may be enough to impress the untutored but, after the third or fourth time of hearing, the underlying emptiness becomes all too apparent. And, as a man whose appreciation of strategy can’t be faulted, he opposed a referendum. His strategy, and everything else he touches beyond personal enrichment, has been an unremitting failure.

Currently, he favours a no-deal Brexit – another example of his strategic acumen (not). Presumably, he believes that his latest strategy of “winning” an unnecessary and irrelevant election is a way to exert pressure on Mrs May to achieve that end. Once again, we see the limits of his thinking, where his only game is to force the Conservatives into taking action, to uncertain effect.

If that was the whole extent of our options, we would be in far more serious trouble than we could possibly imagine. But if there is salvation to be had, it is more likely to lie in a careful study of our situation and in an evaluation of the broader options.

Bringing it down to its basics, the essence of our problem, I would aver, is that the Brexit process is beyond the capacity of our political system to implement, and it has neither the desire nor the incentive to seek enduring solutions. The logical response to that – or, at least, the first element – might be to break the process down into bite-sized chunks that the system can handle, or to hand the job over to bodies which are better equipped to perform the functions involved in the process.

Working along those lines, it seems reasonable to argue that, if the majority of MPs (and much of government) do not have the capacity to evaluate the merits of competing Brexit plans, or even work out whether any particular plan will satisfy stated objectives, it is pointless offering the collective any plans to study.

By avoiding this trap, we would be accepting that parliament is not a planning body and neither is it capable of evaluating plans. We would thus cease to expect it to do things for which it was not designed, and for which it is manifestly not capable. By the same token, asking for indicative votes seems an obvious waste of time.

In the past, we used to refer the evaluation of public policy to such bodies as Royal Commissions. Commissions, in particular, could examine topics for some years, gathering evidence and assessing various alternatives, before coming up with detailed recommendations to guide governments in the choices they made.

Yet, despite the importance of Brexit, and the hugely damaging consequences of getting it wrong, I do not recall seeing any formal inquiry of any great weight, that has assessed our options and made recommendations. To a very great extent, our government and public institutions – and the rest of us – are flying blind.

Such is the complexity of the Brexit process that, in an earlier piece, I suggested that, before we went any further with the EU, we needed a series of scoping meetings. These would enable us to decide what is possible to achieve from our negotiations on a future relationship.

Before we even get there, though, we need as a nation to decide where we want to go. That decision `must be informed by factual analysis and a clear understanding of what is actually possible, together with an appreciation of what our negotiating partners might accept.

Even now, that in itself might be too much to ask of a divided nation that has not fully come to terms with the prospect of leaving. As long as we have active campaigns aimed at reversing the referendum result, it seems hardly likely that we can get down to the task of discussing the best way to leave.

That, it would seem, is the heart of the problem. It isn’t just the establishment which isn’t up to the job. We have an unfocused nation which is not only too easily distracted from the task at hand – mainly because it hasn’t fully decided that this is a task it wants to undertake.

To resolve this, there are those who still hanker after another referendum. But it would be wrong to assert that we are, as a nation, any better informed about Brexit than we were during the last referendum campaign.

Where we can seriously entertain a discussion about the value of a customs union in facilitating frictionless trade, all we have is evidence of monumental ignorance. Those who want a re-run on the basis that we now know more about the issue clearly haven’t been following the debate for the past three years. If we are to be judged as incapable of reaching a knowledge-based decision in June 2016, we are no better equipped now.

On the other hand, a general election is no more suitable a platform for a national debate than is a referendum – and it would be an abuse of process. General elections are for choosing our governments, not for settling contentious issues. For that, supposedly, we have referendums – we are back full circle.

Therefore, I begin to warm to the idea of putting the Brexit process “on hold”, in order to refer it to an independent review body such as a Royal Commission. And since six months would hardly be enough time for it to conclude its work, we would also need to ask the EU for extra time.

One important limitation of this idea, though, relates to the composition of the inquiry body. The great and the good who would normally comprise the panel are, in the main, the very people who have made such a hash of the process so far. And if the panel took evidence from the same “prestigious” witnesses that have polluted select committees and the like, we would be no further forward, no matter how long it was given to perform its task.

On that basis, the idea of an independent inquiry begins to look considerably less attractive, which means that we might have to look elsewhere for our solutions. But, actually, we may not have to look too far. Breaking out of the box, we could be thinking not of one inquiry body but two. One would shadow the other, each with slightly different terms of reference and composition. If one explored the arguments, the other might deliberately set out to challenge received wisdom.

This was the stratagem recommended by Irving Janis in his book on groupthink, where the creation of competing (or complementary) bodies to examine the same issues reduced the danger of a single mindset emerging and remaining unchallenged. Such a multiple-group structure was, apparently, used by the Truman administration in developing the Marshall Plan, so it is hardly a new or untried idea.

To those who would cavil at the extra time this would take, we could offer the aphorism that, if you act in haste you will repent at leisure. There cannot be any rational objection to taking a few years to unravel a process which has taken the UK 47 years to develop.

As much to the point, almost exactly two years ago, I was writing of Alan S Milward and his book, The Rise and Fall of a National Strategy, 1945-63. The point which emerged from it was that governments in general find it difficult to change strategies quickly. Progressing from opposition to UK entanglement in European political integration to support for membership of the EEC took 18 years.

What we are now seeing, I then wrote, is the inevitable consequence of a forced change, for which the government is unprepared, where the speed of change is beyond its ability to accommodate.

I would sooner give the government time to adjust, rather than lose the chance of Brexit altogether, or risk ending up with a bodged outcome which takes decades to repair. If Brexit is to succeed, the process must be properly informed and the issues must be fully discussed and understood, not just by our legislators but also by the public at large.

Effectively, we need a different bus with a better message. And if that takes a couple more years, it is worth the wait.

EXCLUSIVE

Farage should

Fix himself

BREXIT PARTY BOSS

BUSTED

Oliver Norgrove, a former Nigel Farage admirer and Vote Leave staffer, explains how Brexit broke itself on the back of ‘grotesque simplifications’.

Like so many others, my intertwining with Brexit began with Nigel Farage. I remember watching him in person and on YouTube as an 18-year-old, just as my political journey was starting to take shape.

What aided Farage most was his ability to articulate simple solutions to incredibly complex problems.

Mr Farage was the first political figure to really inspire me. I was energised and sprung into action by him in a way that nobody else has since managed. I considered him – and still do to this day – to be an extraordinary orator, and somebody who could not only make the case for Leaving, but in the process relate to the people he was talking to. He appeared to me a cultural outlier in elite circles, even if his educational and professional background suggested otherwise.

What aided Farage most was his ability to articulate simple solutions to incredibly complex problems. He became so good at it that many of his answers turned quite organically into slogans. This had a major effect on people like me, because not only was he able to paint a patriotic and optimistic vision for Brexit, he provided activists with memorable and easily deployed arguments for use in general debate.

The Problem with Slogans

The fact that Mr Farage relied on short, sharp and simple responses made him appear intellectually infallible, even if what he said was suspect in terms of its content.

On some level, the boiled-down, simplification of the issues made me remarkably naive but absurdly over-confident in my approach to arguing for leaving the EU.

The arguments turned Brexit into a more easily digestible, every-day snapshot: ‘They need us more than we need them’ making an analogy to the German car industry analogy; ‘Even in the worst case scenario, we’d be better off than we are now’ with reference to a comparison of tariff schedules based on the ‘they sell us more than we sell them’ point.

On some level, the boiled-down, simplification of the issues made me remarkably naive but absurdly over-confident in my approach to arguing for leaving the EU.

Nigel Farage enjoys a pint in Shoreham, West Sussex during a walkabout ahead of the Brexit Party rally at Brighton City Airport.

But, as time and negotiations progressed, and as more of the technical details became apparent, I started to realise that so many Faragist predictions and pronouncements just weren’t materialising.

The more I learned, for instance, about the mechanics of trade and WTO law, the more I recognised the complete untruth in so much of what had been said.

GATT Article XXIV was not going to provide for a no deal transition. The economic forecasts, increased red tape burden and the response of many businesses to looming third country status prove that we wouldn’t be better off in the worst case scenario than we are now. Most UK trade was not conducted under solely WTO rules. And there was no such thing as a ‘world trade deal’.

The Jaws of Reality

Brexit has been nothing if not an immense learning curve.

Pretty uniquely in the Brexit debate, I have experienced a good flavour of three distinct divisions within the Leave movement: UKIP, Vote Leave and the assorted ‘Liberal Leave’ campaigns, all of which unite around protecting our membership of the single market. I believe that this has enriched my analytical perspective on many of the issues surrounding the UK’s EU withdrawal.

Farage’s grotesque simplifications… and the almost religious evasion of detail were never going to prepare us for our departure.

The outright lies and failure to deal adequately with policy details will go down in history as the Leave side’s most prominent sore. Leaving the European Union is a mammoth legal, technical and constitutional task which cannot be orchestrated according to the whims of the political sloganeering we saw in the 2016 referendum. The jaws of reality, it turns out, cannot be avoided indefinitely.

To some extent, I should have had greater foresight and viewed the withdrawal issues through a more critical lens. But then again, this could be said of almost anybody invested in Brexit. Farage’s grotesque simplifications, parroted by individuals uninterested in complexity, and the almost religious evasion of detail were never going to prepare us for our departure. It is here where history will truly judge him.

With last week’s launch of the new Brexit Party, Nigel Farage has set about re-packaging the core of Brexit support. He says he wants to bring back trust to the political climate, changing our politics ‘for good’. I say he should start with a small measure of self-reflection. He should start by fixing himself.

it seems Ukip’s final demise is coming faster than one might expect, the failure started with Farage, who realised there was nothing further he could personally milk out of it & quit, leaving it in the catastrophic hands of first Diane James who realised that her partner had sufficient assetts for those who were owed money by the party once she had the leadership to persue her – had shunned the awkward and savoury public moment of being kissed by Nigel Farage and had read the balance sheet , it seems , as she quit in 18 days!

Nigel Farage had to keep it going to distance himself from its parlous state and stepped back in long enough to find some other idiot to dupe into the position and in quick succession there was Paul Nuttall who was forced to crawl away & hide under a stone or something, once we had comprehensively exposed his lies & braggadocio in his embarrassingly nonsense CV (almost as much exagerated rubbish as that of David Bannerman who had made an earlier play for leadership but lost hands down when I exposed him also!).

Next we had Henry Bolton who had little understanding of the cause or the party but felt, with his new exalted title, it was time to dump his wife and as I recall small child to parade his new bimbo who lasted a very short time for reasons well exposed elsewhere on this blog! He promptly quit.

Now they were really scraping the barrel and the only person willing to take on the role was the utterly incompetent, corrupt, obsessive Gerard Batten with his Phillipino wife and hence his extremist Islamaphobic views – views that have been the keystone of his catastrophic leadership.

Not content with his extreme racism, presumably to make him look less extreme he took on, as his main advisor & prominent spokesman (when out of prison!) the infamous Tommy Robinson and thus a surge of new members from the ever more extreme gutter sweepings that Ukip has attracted over latter years.

Now of the 24 MEPs elected to Ukip I see the 3 remaining women have also jumped ship leaving Gerard Batten with a crew of 3 in the EU now!

Ukip’s sole remaining MEPs are the oaff Mike Hookem, best if not only known for having been an instigator of a fist fight which hospitalised another Ukip MEP now affiliated with the Tory Party, then there is the odious scoundrel Stuart Agnew who was exposed some years ago on film bragging of how he, with Malcolm Pearson (a Peer of dubious origins) & Nigel Farage fiddling donations to Ukip to avoid declaring them, finally there is Ray Finch, something of a nonentity, probably best known for employing Kirsten Farage (Nigel’s wife) whilst Nigel employed her @£30Kpa his only justification seemed to be she was willing to carry out her duties late at night in a dressing gown – where that places Finch I know not!

Then of course there is Batten himself – all a rather sorry situation and one can but hope that IF there is participation in an EU election in May, Batten will stand down and Ukip will withdraw from the field of combat to avoid further embarrassment having slid from 24 MEPs to their present 4!

It is unlikely Ukip, despite the utter mess Corbyn has forced May into over BreXit whether Ukip will get ANY councillors returned on May 2nd local elections.

Surely the public have had enough of this shower!

To be sure those who have sought liberation from the EU to take full advantage of the opportunities BreXit clearly offers will be glad to see them gone as they have done so much damage to the cause and thus the country over the years.

do be minded that Nigel Farage & Mick McGough have worked closely together for almost 20 years, even in the early 2000s the overt bully & racist McGough was heavily involved as a book keeper for Farage & also acting as one of Farage’s bully boys with no gutter he was not prepared to wallow in to aid his idol – all be it for his own gain in terms of expenses, opportunities & salary!

Drinking buddies of many years standing!

Brexit party official removed after antisemitic posts

Nigel Farage’s party says treasurer no longer has role after making ‘unacceptable statements’

A senior official from Nigel Farage’s pro-Brexit party has been removed after the Guardian uncovered antisemitic and other offensive Facebook posts he made, two weeks after the party leader quit her role for similar reasons.

The party said Michael McGough, its treasurer, had made “unacceptable statements” and would no longer have any role in the organisation.

In some messages, McGough refers to Ed and David Miliband and Peter Mandelson as having “shallow UK roots” or being “devoid of UK roots” – seen as a common antisemitic trope about Jewish people.

A Facebook post saw McGough refer to a foreigner as “someone from a bingo bongo land”. In another, he said many survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire were “illegal aliens enjoying an amnesty”.

On 20 March the original leader, Catherine Blaiklock, resigned after the Guardian asked her about a series of deleted anti-Islam Twitter messages, in which she repeatedly retweeted far-right figures as well as sending her own offensive updates.

The Electoral Commission now lists Farage as the party leader. The departure of McGough means that two of the three Brexit party officers originally listed by the commission have now left.

McGough was previously a longstanding Ukip member. He was on the party’s national executive and stood for election as an MP three times in the Essex constituency of Brentwood and Ongar. Like Farage and Blaiklock he left the party over its anti-Islam stance under its current leader.

Despite this, one of McGough’s Facebook posts, from March 2017, refers obliquely to Islam potentially being a “fifth column” in the UK. “Perhaps a packet of bacon would act like garlic to a vampire but I doubt it,” he wrote. “If we had sharia law then surely most of the terrorist retards would be limbless as they all seem to have past criminal records for theft and violence.”

A string of posts from the same year use seemingly antisemitic insults against the Milibands and Mandelson. One calls David Miliband “son of an east European communist now milking it from a charity in New York and devoid of UK roots”.

Another message says: “The Miliband dudes and Mandelson have the shortest of roots. Transient folk they have no loyalty to the UK.” One reply by another user tells McGough he is on “slightly dangerous ground”. McGough replies: “True, but there is a valid point to be made even if it seems offensive. It is not dissimilar to Lord Tebbit’s cricket test.”

A post about Mandelson reads: “I resent being called racist by an old queen with shallow UK roots.”

“I don’t want a skirtlifter for leader,” he wrote in one. A post a month earlier said: “With Queers Week on the BBC we are being bombarded with material to undermine our sexuality and procreation. I doubt the immigrant birth rates will be affected.” Another referred to a transgender politician who had been on BBC radio: “My, what a deep voice and what a lousy state broadcaster.”

The Brexit party statement said: “The Brexit party is saddened by the unacceptable statements made by Mr McGough. Taken together they mean that he cannot hold a position in the Brexit party.”

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the party “did the right thing” in parting company with McGough and Blaiklock. “The new party will need to institute rigorous anti-racist procedures and policies to ensure this doesn’t keep happening,” she said.

Ian Murray, a Labour MP who backs the People’s Vote campaign, said Farage’s new party seemed to be “vectors for nasty, vicious and ugly politics”.

He said: “The worst argument against a People’s Vote or the European elections has always been that they would encourage the far right. We should be fighting, not hiding from, the far right and their friends like Farage at every single opportunity.”